Citizen Science Can Support Development of Physical, Natural, and Societal Indicators for the U.S. National Climate Indicator System

Abstract

The National Climate Indicators System is being developed as part of sustained assessment activities associated with the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) National Climate Assessment. The National Climate Indicators... [ view full abstract ]

The National Climate Indicators System is being developed as part of sustained assessment activities associated with the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) National Climate Assessment. The National Climate Indicators System (NCIS), a proposed sustained assessment activity of the USGCRP, is a set of physical, ecological, and societal indicators that communicate key aspects of the physical climate, climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and preparedness for the purpose of informing both decision makers and the public with scientifically valid information.

The NCIS will serve as a conceptually unified framework to address questions important to multiple audiences including (but not limited to) researchers, nonscientists (e.g., Congress, the public), resource managers, and state and municipal planners. Because of the diversity of potential stakeholders, where possible indicators will represent states and processes across scales (local to national).

The USGCRP developed a pilot set of indicators for NCIS based on the recommendations of 150+ scientists and practitioners, and 13 multidisciplinary teams, including, for example, greenhouse gases, forests, grasslands, water, human health, oceans and coasts, and energy. The pilot NCIS includes approximately 20 indicators that are already developed, scientifically vetted, and implementable immediately. The pilot is designed for evaluation purposes and feedback received on these indicators will be used to increase their utility for decision makers and to inform the development of a broader, more comprehensive indicators system

Working hand in hand with professional science programs, citizen science projects such as the USA National Phenology Network already provide critical data and derived indicators to support the NCIS. Similar projects may have the potential to support current and planned indicators or make new contributions capable of supporting future indicators efforts. We will present research and implementation opportunities to expand the inclusion of citizen science efforts within an indicator system focused on long-term global change.